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The Thorny Road From Primary to Secondary Source: The Cult of Mumbo and the 1914 Sack of Kisii
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2014
Extract
For almost two decades, the cult of Mumbo or Mumboism has attracted the attention of historians and other social scientists interested in the colonial history of western Kenya. This has led to its recognition as an important protest response to colonial rule among the Gusii and Luo from the period just prior to World War I through the 1930s. Its importance has been magnified by ascribing to it responsibility for the looting of Kisii town, the administrative headquarters of what was then South Kavirondo district in southwestern Kenya. The Gusii people living near Kisii did indeed loot the town in September 1914 in the aftermath of the withdrawal of the British administration and a battle between an invading German force from German East Africa to the south and British troops, but the responsibility of the cult of Mumbo is at very best problematical. An examination of contemporary documentary and published primary sources shows that the cult of Mumbo or its teachings had nothing whatever to do with the looting and destruction of Kisii town, and offers a cautionary note on the use and abuse of colonial sources in Kenya history.
Such a cautionary note is particularly highlighted by two recently published secondary works: Bill Freund's The Making of Contemporary Africa and E.S. Atieno-Odhiambo's chapter in volume VII of the UNESCO sponsored General History of Africa. In constructing their broad accounts, neither author had the opportunity to make extensive use of primary source material.
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1986
References
Notes
1. The Bantu-speaking Gusii were often referred to as the Kisii during the colonial period. Inhabiting the southwestern highlands (often termed Gusiiland or the Gusii highlands) of Kenya adjacent to Lake Victoria, they were administered as part of South Kavirondo (later South Nyanza) District for much of the colonial period. Nilotic-speaking Luo and Bantu-speaking Kuria peoples also made up the district's population.
2. Freund, Bill, The Making of Contemporary Africa (Bloomington, 1984), 155CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Atieno-Odhiambo, E.S., “Politics and Nationalism in East Africa, 1919-1935” in General History of Africa, Vol. VII, Boahen, A. Adu, ed. (Berkley, 1985), 652–53.Google Scholar
3. Wipper, Audrey, Rural Rebels (Nairobi, 1977), 36.Google Scholar Wipper earlier published the same account of the looting in “The Gusii Rebels” in Rotberg, Robert and Mazrui, Ali, eds., Protest and Power in Black Africa (New York, 1970), 391.Google ScholarOgot, B.A. and Ochieng', William R., “Mumboism-An Anti-Colonial Movement” in Ogot, , ed., War and Society in Africa (London, 1972), 167–68.Google Scholar
4. Ogot and Ochieng', 167-68.
5. Ibid., 168; Freund, Making, 155.
6. Bowring to Harcourt, 28 April 1915, C.O. 533/153 provides an accounting of property damage. The Kisii dispensary was perhaps most harshly treated. The dispensary building and the dispenser's house were heavily damaged, and all hospital equipment and drugs were destroyed or removed. J. Hannigan to Principal Medical Officer, 15 October 1914, Kenya National Archives (KNA): Medical 43/235.
7. The official military account of the battle bears this out as do various other sources. Brigadier General Stewart, Report on Action Which Took Place at Kisii on 12 September 1914, enclosure in Belfield to Harcourt, Secret, 9 October 1914, C.O. 533/141. East African Standard (Weekly), 26 September 1914, 17.Google Scholar South Kavirondo Annual Report (SKAR) 1914-15, KNA: DC/SKI/1/2. C.E. Spencer to J. Ainsworth, 23 September 1914, KNA: PC/NZA/3/65/47. The recollections of two participants confirms the sequence of events as set out above: Shorthose, W.T., Sport and Adventure in Africa (Philadelphia, 1923), 90–95Google Scholar; Richard Gethin, Early Days in Kisii, KNA: DC/KSI/3/6. Gethin, Kisii's first European merchant, wrote his account in 1953.
8. Ogot and Ochieng', “Mumboism,” 168. The document is located in KNA; DC/KSI/3/2. When used by Ogot and Ochieng' and Wipper, its reference number was KSI/27.
9. Wipper, Rural Rebels, 36; idem., “The Gusii Rebels,” 391.
10. Stewart, Report on Action Which Took Place at Kisii.
11. Wipper, Rural Rebels, 36.
12. Ibid., 40. Her reference is KSI/27 District of South Kavirondo Administrative Records.
13. Campbell to C.R. Lane (PC Nyanza), 28 November 1918, KNA: DC/KSI/3/2.
14. Wipper, Rural Rebels, 36.
15. Wipper chooses to ignore, on the other hand, the accounts of eyewitness participants Shorthose and Gethin and the report of the military authorities.
16. P.M. Gordon, An Outline History of South Kavirondo, SKAR 1946, KNA: DC/SKI/1/8.
17. South Kavirondo Monthly Intelligence Report for November 1933, KNA: PC/NZA.4/5/7.
18. SKAR 1914-15.
19. Nyanza Province Annual Report 1914-15, KNA: PC/NZA.1/10.
20. Spencer to Ainsworth, 23 September 1914 and Spencer to Ainsworth, 30 September 1914, KNA: PC/PC/NZA/3/65/47. 19,525 cattle were seized from both the Gusii and Luo and 3,000 young men forced out to work as punishment.
21. Owing to the danger, military authorities would not allow Spencer's wife to live with him at Kisii. He chose to transfer to North Kavirondo rather than separation. Ainsworth to Acting Chief Secretary, 8 October 1914, KNA: PC/NZA/3/65/47. Campbell remained in charge of the district until May of 1916. He returned to South Kavirondo in April 1918 to begin his second tour as DC. SKAR 1916-17 and SKAR 1917-18, KNA: DC/KSI/1/2.
22. S.H. Fazan, Report on Investigation Made Concerning the Worship of Mumbo, 19 July 1915, enclosure in Campbell to Ainsworth, 21 July 1915, KNA: DC/KSI/3/2.
23. Ibid.
24. The Gusii highlands were at this time divided into eight such administrative divisions.
25. Lane to Campbell, 25 November 1918, KNA: DC/SKI/3/2.
26. Campbell to Lane, 28 November 1918.
27. Ainsworth to Acting Chief Secretary, 9 December 1918, KNA: DC/SKI/3/2. A little over a month later, Ainsworth expressed similar sentiments. “I have personally known this so-called religion for some years,” he wrote to Lane, “but have not been of the opinion that it had any political significance nor that it need be interfered with.” Ainsworth to Lane, 21 January 1919, KNA: DC/SKI/3/2.
28. Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Council, 20 January 1919, C.O. 544/14, with emphasis added.
29. I have made to attempt to bring in oral sources for this paper. No one whom I interviewed in 1969, however, attributed the sack of Kisii to the cult of Mumbo (Nyamumbo to the Gusii). It should be pointed out, on the other hand, that as I was researching a much broader topic, I made no effort to seek all available sources.
30. The accuracy of Wipper's citations from Kenya National Archives material in her analysis of Dini ya Msambwa, which is included with that of the cult of Mumbo in Rural Rebels, has been questioned by Jan J. De Wolf. De Wolf, Jan J., “Dini ya Msambwa: Militant Protest of Millenarian Promise,” Canadian Journal of African Studies, 17 (1983), 267–68.Google Scholar As has been suggested in the text, I see similar problems in Wipper's use of archival sources. Her spirited response to De Wolf's criticism in no way removes the feeling that her grasp of such sources was, and is, not all that it should be. In the course of her defense, for example, Wipper quotes at length the DC of North Nyanza in 1949, a man she identifies as Campbell! Campbell was not in charge of any Kenya district in 1949; the DC of North Nyanza was C.H. Williams. Wipper, Audrey, “Lofty Visions and Militant Action: A Reply to Jan De Wolf,” Canadian Journal of African Studies, 17 (1983), 288.Google Scholar
31. SKAR 1914-15.
32. Nyamwamu, Chief of Nyaribari location, was one such chief who took part in the looting, and as a result he was removed by the colonial administration. SKAR 1914-15.